Solar Airplane

The sun-powered Solar Impulse set out on a cross-country flight from Moffett Airfield in Mountain View, Calif at 6:12 a.m. (PST) this morning. The 2013 Across America mission, which seeks to promote clean technologies, will make stops in 4 U.S. cities: Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, Texas; St. Louis, Mo.; D.C.; and New York, N.Y.

DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has set a seemingly impossible task, known as the Vulture program, by calling for an aircraft which can remain in the sky for five years while generating five kilowatts of power for a 1,000 pound payload. The Odysseus by Aurora Flight Sciences, which has been selected as one promising design by DARPA, doesn't appear capable of flight at all to many onlookers. The odd Z-shaped wing is actually three separate machines which can change thei

I just ran across this very in-depth article that introduces us to a new team, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, who hopes to rewrite the record books when it comes to solar aviation. They are doing so with a rather small airplane (compared to previous solar fliers) known as SunSailor.